What happens when you give food nerds a little money and free range to cook for 100 people? We decided to cook 34lbs of vacuum-sealed eye of round for 30 hours in a 131ºF water bath. The ~100 people in the office ate 30 pounds of beef, 30 pounds of potato salad, but only three pounds of salad. My kind of people.

It starts simply, usually with a sign. "This fridge will be cleaned out on X date. All items not labeled will be thrown away." But then X date passes and the fridge remains full. Worse, it begins to smell. As time passes, people avoid opening the fridge because it's too scary and there's no room in there for anything else anyway. Sound familiar? If your work fridge meets this description, you could win fame and fortune. Or, you know, a prize.

There are many sounds that make up the background noise of the PayScale office. At any given moment, I can hear my co-workers giggling over a YouTube video (maybe this one of the Kitty Cat dance -- note: it's catchy and awesome), playing ping pong, and sometimes involved in an epic battle, pitting a toy helicopter against a Nerf toy that shoots foam discs. We might work hard, but we play hard, too.

"What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day." --Phyllis Diller

Between year-end bonuses and office holiday parties, there can be a lot to celebrate in the month of December. An open bar alone is enough to warrant the distinction of "the most wonderful time of the year." Here at PayScale, as we gathered twinkle lights to ready our desks for the holidays, we decided to ask our friends and co-workers about their holiday horror stories. Let these serve as a cautionary tale to help you keep your job for another holiday season.

Here at PayScale, we are dedicated to helping you know your worth, interact with your professional network, and get timely, practical career advice. Our newest release expands different areas of our site, adding features that could help you move your career forward. Curious? Read on to learn about the new things that have us so excited!

In case you missed it, in an article titled, "These Two Salary Data Sources Will Help You Prove That You Deserve A Raise", Business Insider’s Brazenist column
recently compared PayScale to Kim Kardashian. We know, the analogy sounds weird,
but whenever a major media outlet recognizes us for “blazing a new trail
when it comes to providing salary data” we’re happy to accept it as a
compliment. When they questioned the validity of our methodology though, we
shot back with a few corrections defending our (and Kim’s) honor.

What would you do if someone handed you $10,000 to donate to charity? What organizations are you most passionate about?

These are the questions we at PayScale are asking ourselves as we continue to vie for the opportunity to win $10k in the American City Business Journals' Social Madness competition. Your votes helped us move forward this far in the contest, representing Seattle in the national competition, and now we're much closer to donating $10k to charity. Can you help us win and pick where the money will go?

"A" for effort. "B+" for results. That sounds about right. Our powerful PayScale ping-pong duo, Perry and Mariya, made waves at Geekwire's Summer Bash with their intense playing styles, and for arriving with their personal ping-pong paddles kept in their original cases. The rest of us enjoyed cheering them on and eating from the tasty mac 'n cheese buffet.

It's not polite to brag but the fact is that some PayScale employees have mad ping-pong skillz. Meet Perry and Mariya. This dynamic duo works together, plays together and will compete in the upcoming Geekwire Summer Bash ping-pong tournament this Thursday.

There are so many ways to geek out – pounding six-shot Americanos at midnight or stuffing yourself with Hot Pockets while leveling up in Diablo III. And then there are geek sports, like Frisbee golf, ping-pong and foosball. We here at PayScale are really good at one of those – ping-pong - and we’re sending our best players to the GeekWire Summer Bash ping-pong tournament next week.

"And so it ends... in a drizzle," began Captain Kaylyn's last-day email address to PayScale's 26 Bike to Work Month participants. Yes, it is a drizzly day here in Seattle, but many PayScalers rode in nonetheless. Rain is unlikely to stop us. In fact, when asked about their fondest memories after a month of biking to work, riding in the rain often topped the lists of PayScale's intrepid bike commuters.

Bike to Work Month culminates with one big party on the third Friday of the month: Bike to Work Day. Everyone is encouraged to participate on this one day and, here in Seattle, it's a party on wheels. The day's organizer, Cascade Bicycle Club, not only hosts its own station with snacks and drinks for riders, they've encouraged DIY (Do It Yourself) stations all over the city in the last few years. Now, the whole town is dotted with opportunities to load up on doughnuts, coffee, smoothies and more.